DC Memo: Crypto industry spending big on Craig’s reelection campaign

   WASHINGTON — Races for Rep. Angie Craig’s 2nd Congressional District seat have always been awash in outside spending, with groups supporting or opposing the incumbent spending millions of dollars to swamp the airwaves with TV ads. But the biggest outside spender this time is new to the game and represents the cryptocurrency industry, which is trying to fend off new federal regulations. So crypto Super PAC Fairshake and two allied PACs, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, have spent more than $130 million this year supporting its friends in Congress, and those who might be their friends, and attacking lawmakers who want better regulation of the crypto industry. Fairshake alone has spent more than $1 million supporting Craig, although its ads do not mention crypto at all, focusing instead on the Democrat’s hardscrabble upbringing (in Arkansas) and portraying her as an inflation fighter. “Angie Craig knows what it takes to make ends meet,” the Fairshake ads say. “Raised by a single mother who worked two jobs, Craig’s mother had to choose between food and health care.” The massive spending by the crypto industry on Craig’s behalf seems counterintuitive at first blush. After all, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, is one of the top champions of the industry in Congress, has a senior position on the House Financial Services Committee and is a member of the GOP leadership as House Majority Whip. And Emmer is the biggest booster of Craig’s GOP opponent, Joe Teirab, whose campaign did not benefit from the huge outpouring of political crypto cash. Neither Emmer’s campaign nor Teirab’s responded to requests for comment. But the industry knows what it is doing. Craig sits on the Agriculture Committee panel with jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC,) which, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), regulates crypto. Craig was also identified by cryptocurrency advocacy group Stand With Crypto as a lawmaker who “strongly supports crypto” — a rating based on the study of her voting record and a questionnaire she filled out. In that questionnaire, Craig said she did not have any experience buying or selling crypto, but agreed that the industry’s blockchain technology and digital assets would play “a major role in the next wave of technological innovation globally.” She also agreed with the statement that “cryptocurrency and the digital asset industry is driving economic growth and supporting millions of jobs across the country” and said she would vote for a bill, heavily promoted by Emmer, called the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act. The legislation would shift some crypto oversight away from the SEC and toward the CFTC, which some critics see as friendlier to industry. Walz costs Harris Pennsylvania? Former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told Bloomberg Television Thursday that his former arch nemesis, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, had a key role in Kamala Harris’ selection of Tim Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her vice-presidential running mate. McCarthy said that decision — echoed by other Republicans and, privately, a few Democrats lately — means Harris will lose Pennsylvania and lose the national election to Donald Trump “If (Trump) picks up Pennsylvania — it’s over,” McCarthy said, because he would not need to capture other swing states like Arizona or Nevada to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election. He also said “Kamala, at the end of the day — if she loses this race — it’s going to be because of her listening to Pelosi when Pelosi pushed her to pick Walz, not Shapiro.”Yet some analysts say Harris could lose Pennsylvania and still win the election if she wins all the states that now favor her and is able to win either Georgia or North Carolina. Still, Harris’ most likely path to the White House is winning the Midwestern “blue wall” states of Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania and one congressional district in Omaha, Nebraska. There is no evidence that Shapiro, while popular in his home state, would have done better than Walz stumping for Harris in Pennsylvania. But the race is tight there and Pennsylvania likely will be the focus of both campaigns in the closing days of the race. Most polls taken in the state show a dead heat. Hope Walz was back on the campaign trail with her father this week as Gov. Tim Walz traveled to Wisconsin on Tuesday after spending the weekend in New England. He was joined by former President Barack Obama at a rally in Racine on the first day of early voting in the state. Walz addressed comments from John Kelly, a former Trump chief of staff, who said recently that Trump had told him that he wished he had generals like Adolf Hitler’s. “As a 24-year veteran of our military, that makes me sick as hell,” Walz said. “The guardrails are gone. Trump is descending into this madness.” Walz also made a quick trip back to Minnesota to visit a polling place in St. Paul with his family. Walz told a poll worker it was the first time his 18-year-old son Gus had voted. “He’s pretty excited about it,” Walz said. Then it was on to Kentucky, where he raised $2 million at a fundraiser in Louisville. During that stop in Louisville, Walz said he would mention some “incredibly dangerous reasons that Donald Trump needs to stay out of the White House.” “But one of the simplest ones is how refreshing it will be just not to see or hear that guy,” he said. After that Walz headed to the swing state of North Carolina, where polls show Harris had made some recent headway against Trump. One stop was to Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium to meet men’s basketball coach Jon Scheyer. He was overheard saying Cameron “really does have a high school gym feel to it” when he walked into the arena. On Thursday evening, Walz was scheduled to speak at a rally at Wilmington, North Carolina, where he would be joined by native son James Taylor. Taylor was expected to perform at the rally, but the Harris campaign could not confirm the musician would sing “Carolina in My Mind.” In case you missed it: Ava Kian traveled to Sleepy Eye for our story on the 1st congressional district that was represented by Tim Walz for a dozen years but is now out of reach for a Democratic candidate. Peter Callaghan took a close look at a state senate race that is not getting much attention but could decide whether that chamber remains in DFL hands. And Winter Keefer wrote about why it is taking so long — four years after the death of George Floyd — to take down the razor wire around Minneapolis’s Third Precinct police station. The station was burned down during the city’s unrest and its dilapidated state provides a good backdrop for GOP politicians to blame Tim Walz for the unrest. Your questions and comments A reader who said his graduate degree was focused on immigration commented on our story about the drift towards the GOP in the largely rural 1st Congressional District, which borders Iowa. “When a Republican farmer isn’t focused on getting a great farm bill, but supporting the Trump agenda, which is pretty anti-rural, I really wonder why people cannot focus on real issues that affect them,” the reader wrote. “Immigrants are a big part of filling rural jobs. Actually most are well respected. Sort of like ‘our immigrants are OK,’ but there’s lots of fear of immigrants in big cities – who create no risk for them, with the exception of those involved in drug trafficking, which is hardly confined to immigrants.” The story also prompted a comment from a resident of the 1st District. “We need more construction workers,” the reader wrote. “Construction firms are backed up. This leads to a long waiting period for service. If you are lucky enough to get service, you may have to pay an extra mileage fee if you live far from cities like Rochester and Austin…Free trade school or community college could help increase the number of construction workers.” Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.